Monday, September 08, 2008

Olmert to Olim: America is here?!

Continuing their mission of bringing World Jewry to Israel, yet another Nefesh B'Nefesh chartered airplane landed in Israel this morning, as 235 more Jews returned home -- as new immigrants. Dubbed, The "Singles" flight, 92 of the immigrants are singles (57 women and 35 men)...let's hope they don't get sucked into the Katamon "Srugim" swamp! (btw, How do we know Srugim isn't authentic? Because the characters never talk about the Srugim TV show! If they were authentic, they would be talking about the show, just as religious Jews are talking about the show all the time...)

"You have come to the greatest country in the world. It's true that we face dangers and threats, but they cannot harm the State of Israel. The State of Israel will live forever as a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. The olim are the answer to any threat."

The prime minister went on to praise the Israeli economy, and added, "America is here."

America is here?!

Jews move to Israel because it's Israel, and not America.

Israel is not the "greatest country" in the world -- it is the most special country to the Jewish people, but not the "greatest". If Israel were America, Olmert would have resigned in shame months ago, instead of brazenly continuing as Prime Minister and pushing dubious political discussions with Syria and the Palestinians without a moral mandate.

Welcome home Olim -- and please try to ignore our Prime Minister. He's just an insignificant blip on the radar of Jewish history.

Among those who arrived in Israel on Monday were a three-month old baby and an 86-year-old woman, as well as 34 families, 48 children and 18 youths who will soon join the Israel Defense Forces. Ten new dogs will also have to get used to the Israeli climate from now on.

Israeli climate...and the Knesset.

Despite them -- welcome home! You will make this country better, and hopefully we will eventually be proud of our nation's government.

Olmert's stupid remark about Israel being America wasn't the only inappropriate comment he made to the olim. Apparently, he also saw fit to make some partisan politcal remarks, too:

"[MK Yoel] Hasson is a member of Kadima, he will be one of the party's seniorleaders, and it will remain a leading party in Israel."

Seeing a planeload of olim juxtaposed with Ehud Olmert is a study in contrasts. As a rule, olim are sincere idealists, committed to their Jewish and Zionist values. They are living models of Jewish selflessness, and tend to be interested in doing whatever they can to contribute to the Jewish people, and to strengthen the Jewish people's hold on its eternal homeland. Olmert, on the other hand, is practically the very opposite: He's a conniving cynic, interested in little but his own personal advancement. He has demonstrated his willingness to make tens of thousands of Jews homeless, and to jepoardize the security of his people, just in order to score a few political points. And his level of corruption has raised eyebrows even among the jaded Israeli public.

So its hardly surprising that Nefesh b'Nefesh felt compelled to take the embarrassing precaution of appealing to the olim to bite their tongues, and to refrain from showing any disrespect to this odious man while he was addressing them. You might imagine that Olmert, for his part, would have the minimal good sense to steer clear of politics when speaking to them. But you would be wrong.

I attended the cermony. We were asked to respect the office of the PrimeMinister at least twice before he spoke. We honored that request until heinjected politics into his speech. When he mentioned Kadima we booed him.

Besides the other problems with that remark which you noted, it ignores that fact that many, if not most religious olim are moving to "Eretz Yisrael" and not to "Israel" as such, let alone to "America". I.e., their prime appeal/motivation in making aliyah is kedushas eretz yisrael (the holiness of the land) and mitzvos ha'teluos ba'aretz (fulfilling the mitzvos that apply only in eretz yisrael) and not the modern government of Israel.

But it's not surprising that such concepts would be utterly worthless, or even meaningless, to Olmert.

I was on the same singles flight last year, and boy was it party city. (Thank G-d we got to sit with the singles and not with the screaming young kids in the back of the plane--I felt so sorry for those parents). But the singles partied all night. Fun to watch.

We also had Olmert talking. I was to zonked to care. If he said something stupid, I didn't notice.

My friend's daughter was one of the singles on that flight--Mazal Tov, Adina!

I'm no fan of Olmert but his comment that "America is here" probably was meant to indicate that Israel is now the "Goldene medina" the land of great opportunity. It fits well in the context of his lauding the growth rate. He also boosted his Kadima colleague, perhaps as plug for him personally. I don't think it was a party boost.

I haven't heard him speak in years. He looked impaired to me. Either exceptionally weary or somehow drugged or physically stressed. (I realize no one here cares, but it was just an observation while hearing him speak). Thanks for the link I really enjoyed watching the NBN festivities.

I imagine he's stressed out by his impending criminal corruption indictments, which the police officially recommended yesterday, and by the pressure from inside his own party to resign immediately.

The thousands of people who lost their homes in Gush Katif are still pretty weary and stressed, too. So are the families of the people who died in his pathetically bungled war in Lebanon a year later. I'm not feeling too sorry for him.